XI. Cooking is generally bad because people fall into routine; habit dulls their appreciation, and they do not think about what they are eating.

They fall into routine because they do not criticise.

They do not criticise because they have no ideal.

They have no ideal because they do not know, theoretically and practically, what cooking means, what is its object, and what are the conditions necessary for success.

The Ideal Is Unattainable, But The Aim Of The Cook Should Always Be To Reduce The Interval Which Separates Practical From Ideal Excellence

P. Z. Didsbury.

XII. There is no perfect cook-book. - Ex-perientia.

XIII. The art of cooking cannot be learned out of a book any more than the art of swimming or the art of painting. The best teacher is practice ; the best guide is sentiment. - Louis XV., King of France.

Louis XV. was an amateur cook, and amused himself, in company with the Prince de Dombes, by making quintessential stews in silver pans. - See Goncourt," La Duchesse de Chateauroux."

XIV. There are innumerable books of recipes for cooking, but unless the cook is master of the principles of his art, and unless he knows the why and the wherefore of its processes, he cannot choose a recipe intelligently and execute it suc-cessfully.-Richard Estcourt, Providore of ye original "Beefsteak Club."

XV. The distinction of classical cookery and household cookery is a vain one. There are but too sorts of cookery, namely, bad cookery and good cookery. - P. Z. Didsbury.

XVI. The most artistic and the most whole-some ways of preparing food are the simplest. - P. Z. Didsbury.

XVII. The perfect cook is single-minded and disguises nothing. - Gamaliel Stubbs, Clerk of the Kitchen to Oliver Cromwell.

XVIII. Even in Mr. D'Urfey's presence this I would be bound to say, that a good dinner is brother to a good poem; only it is something more substantial, and between two and three o'clock more agreeable. - Dr. William King.

Dr. King, the English bard, born in 1663, died 1712, wrote a poem on the "Art of Cookery," in imitation of Horace's "Art of Poetry," having remarked that, "Tho' cooks are often men of pregnant wit, Thro' niceness of their subject few have writ."

In the days of the learned and ingenious doctor, who, by the way, sided with Dr. Sache-verell, and had a hand in some of the political kites which flew about at that time, people rose earlier and dined earlier than they do nowadays. But whatever the hour at which a good dinner is eaten, it is, as the worthy doctor says, brother to a good poem ; nay, more than that, it is a poem itself,

XIX. It is convenient to dine late, because you can then concentrate all your thoughts on your plate, think only of what you are eating, and go to bed af-terwards. - Grimod de la Reyniere.

The author of this sage maxim, Balthazar Grimod de la Reyniere, born in 1758, was one of the fathers of the modern art of cookery, and a most enlightened and philosophical gourmand, having thoroughly orthodox ideas on the subject of dining. The reason he gives above for dining late is the true one. Dinner is a matter of such importance that it cannot be treated lightly; it is at once a source of health and a source of joy, and it is impossible to take joy hurriedly, or to dine hastily. A real gourmand would sooner fast than be obliged to eat a good dinner in a hurry. The mortal enemy of dinner is every meal taken before it in the course of the working day. Eat lightly during the day, and reserve your forces for the crowning meal of dinner. Remember, also, that a dinner without ceremony is as much to be dreaded as an amateur concert.

XX. The man who pays no attention to the food that he consumes is comparable only to the pig, in whose trough the trotters of his own son, a pair of old braces, a newspaper, and a set of dominoes are equally welcome. - Charles Mon-selet.

By this selection of maxims and summings up of experience, I have sought to impress upon the reader's mind the high importance of the arts of cooking and of eating, and of all the operations connected with them. I have been careful to choose only general maxims, from which the thoughtful reader will deduce for himself particular consequences. Until recently, the cook-book has been too often merely a collection of recipes printed pell-mell in bewildering abundance, and classified in the least methodical manner. Of such cook-books there are hundreds, and many of them are admirable in their way, but a cook must be already very learned in his art in order to know how to use them with advantage, and to adapt each recipe to a case in point. The consequence is, that many cook-books are bought, and few are read either by mistress or maids, by masters or by head-cooks. The philosopher P. Z. Didsbury has told us that, nowadays, people fall into routine in matters of cookery, because they do not criticise; but how can they criticise if they do not know the principles of the art of cooking? It is not a question of having at one's finger's ends the composition of a hundred dishes, or the recipes for making ninety-nine soups. The knowledge indispensable to critic and practitioner alike is the why and the wherefore of each operation employed in the art of cooking; the conditions of success in each operation; the means of preserving, developing, and combining flavors. Now these operations may-all be reduced to a few main processes, the thorough comprehension of which is the first step in the art of cooking. All the subtle-ties and delicacies of the art depend on the perfection of these main and elementary processes ; and, to go even further, we may say that no one who is not master of these processes can use with advantage a book of recipes. Furthermore, both the cook and the critic will increase the lucidity of their reasoning, and the completeness of their comprehension of things, by acquiring a few elementary notions about the chemistry of cooking. Let me insist once more upon the necessity of the application of logic and reason to these questions of gastronomy; upon the importance of knowing the "why" and the "wherefore,' if not the "how;" and, above all, upon the desirableness of cultivating the critical faculty as applied to the arts of cooking, of dining, and of serving food. The destiny of nations, it has been said, depends upon the manner in which they eat.